Hospital buys former West Grand Middle School building for expansion

MIddle Park Medical Center recently purchased the former West Grand Middle School building in Kremmling with plans to use the facility for a variety of purposes.

Middle Park Medical Center will soon be expanding the size of its Grand County operations with the recent purchase of the former West Grand Middle School building in Kremmling.

The hospital district plans to utilize the new building for a variety of purposes including an expanded laundry facility, physical therapy space and employee housing.

"MPMC has immediate uses in mind for a portion of the building," MPMC CEO Robert Flake said. "Our facility has outgrown our current laundry facility. We plant to move our laundry services so we can obtain higher volume laundry machines."

The Medical Center purchased the property on March 7. According to MPMC Director of Community Relations Tiffany Freitag, the district was on the look out for a building that would meet their needs and called the listing of the former middle school "good timing."

"We have had a need for that laundry facility for a long time," Freitag said. "We were making do with what we had the Granby facility's and Kremmling facility's laundry are both done in Kremmling."

Middle Park Medical Center paid $399,000 for the new building. Upgrade and renovation work is expected in the near future. Blueprints for the future construction work are still being developed and Freitag did not have an estimated cost for the upgrades the district plans to implement.

While the district is currently focused on laundry, physical therapy and employee housing needs, they expect to add additional elements to the facility, based in-part on community suggestions.

The district is planning to hold a series of open house meetings sometime this summer. The meetings have not been officially scheduled yet though Freitag said they would be opportunities for local residents to recommend potential uses for the additional space in the building.

"In the near future we will be holding public discussions to collect community input on what the community would like to see in there," Freitag said. "Those [suggestions] would need to stick with our vision of community wellness."

The building being purchased by MPMC is located on the corner of Highway 40 and Ninth Street in Kremmling and is the building where West Grand School District currently holds middle school classes, which is located at the northern end of Ninth Street near the corner of Jackson Avenue.